Rio Recap: Day 16

Christine RoussellePosted at 5:31 pm on August 22, 2016

And we’re done! The United States will leave Rio with 121 medals: 46 gold, 37 silver, and 38 bronze. This is the best the U.S. has ever done at an Olympics held outside of the United States. Great job, Team USA!

Women’s boxing was added to the Olympics in 2012, and Claressa Shields has reigned supreme since then. Shields won her second gold medal on Sunday, becoming the first American to ever win back-to-back gold.

In only his second marathon ever, Galen Rupp took the bronze. This is the first medal for the United States in the men’s marathon since 2004.

Honored: Abbey D’Agostino (USA) and Nikki Hamblin (New Zealand) won’t be leaving Rio empty-handed. The two were awarded the Fair Play Award for their incredible sportsmanship during the 5,000m semifinals. In what was easily one of the most touching moments of the games, after both Hamblin and D’Agostino fell during the race, both picked each other up and encouraged each other to finish despite injuries. The two finished the race together.

USA still dominant in basketball: It seemed at first that this could be a close one, with Serbia surging to a three-point lead early in the first quarter. But then, the United States took over and easily defeated Serbia by a score of 96-66. Star Carmelo Anthony then announced his retirement from Team USA.

You ever get so angry you just rip off your clothes?: If so, these Mongolian coaches can empathize. After a controversial call that cost their athlete a bronze medal in wrestling, Tsenrenbataar Tsostbayar and Byambarenchin Bayoraa proceeded to strip in protest.

Youngin’ doing big things: Congratulations are in order to Kyle Snyder, who at the age of 20 became the youngest American to win a gold in wrestling. Snyder defeated Khetag Goziumov from Azerbaijan for the gold.

Itsa Abe!: If the brief preview we saw during the Closing Ceremonies is any indication, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo are going to be absolutely incredible. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dressed as Super Mario for a skit, and appeared in Rio in a green pipe. It was glorious.

Thank you: To Hot Air for letting me write these recaps for the last two weeks! I hope you all enjoyed reading these recaps and I had a blast writing them. You can find more of my work over at Townhall.